Several European countries are considering the possibility of enacting a financial transaction tax on market trading. The usual mega billion dollar banks, brokers, etc, along with their bought and paid for prostitutes on the right are terrified that they might be required to to actually pay a “sales” tax on their stock, bond, futures, etc trading. The real shocker here is that there is no sales tax on these transactions to begin with. We pay sales taxes on just about everything else from food to medicine, but the ultra wealthy continue to get away with impoverishing the rest of us.

“...A transactions tax, in addition to raising much needed revenue without causing economic damage, would throw some sand in the gears of high-frequency traders. Even one of high-speed trading’s pioneers has admitted that such activity does nothing for the economy: “We are competing at milliseconds,” he said. “And whether you can shave three milliseconds of an order, has absolutely no social value.” 52 financial industry experts, including several former executives at the nation’s biggest banks, said in a letter that a transactions tax “will rebalance financial markets away from a short-term trading mentality that has contributed to instability in our financial markets.”…”

One interesting little tidbit jumped out at The Pink Flamingo:

“…Over EIGHT percent of the GDP (8.4%) goes for tax expenditures (subsidies provided through the tax code, mostly to the very rich). That’s almost exactly the same amount (8.4% of the GDP) that goes to Social Security and Medicare….”

“...The Economist .. that it costs just THREE cents in administrative expenses for every $100 raised through a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) in the United Kingdom, versus $1.42 for the personal income tax and $1.25 for the corporate income tax. With up to THREE quadrillion dollars in total U.S. financial transactions, we could replace federal income taxes with a tiny FTT…”

It’s all about a Financial Transactions Tax.

“...A financial transactions tax is a small tax on financial transactions. One long-standing form of an FTT is the local real estate transfer tax that most Americans pay when buying or selling a house. Most existing and historical FTTs focus on real estate transfers and stock trading and are set at rates of 1.5 percent or less of the sale amount of the financial instrument. Financial instruments include real estate titles, but also stocks, bonds, foreign currency, commodities and derivatives on all of these. Since real estate transfers are already taxed, current proposals for new FTTs focus on financial instruments other than real estate….”

If the US were to employ a financial tax AND require everyone pay the same tax percentage rates with the same deductions (children, mortgage interest, some charity, certain expenses, and a minimum income deduction of something like $35,000) we could put a huge dent in our deficit spending.

An FTT accomplishes two goals. Most importantly, it raises money. Unlike most taxes, however, it does so in a way that is arguably beneficial to the economy as a whole. While most taxes involve some sacrifice from taxpayers in order to promote the common good, the FTT promotes the common good directly through the “positive externalities” it generates for the economy. Positive externalities are improvements to economic efficiency that result from changes in behavior. A well-designed FTT would discourage speculation and computer-driven high frequency trading in financial instruments. That would reduce market volatility and increase access to capital markets for ordinary borrowers and investors. Even if an FTT raised no money, it would still improve the economy.

What Are the Potential Drawbacks?

For bankers, brokers and high-frequency traders, there are many potential drawbacks to an FTT. Many of them might lose their bonuses and some of them might lose their jobs. Investment banking and financial trading in general would likely become less profitable. Some ultra-luxury industries that depend on huge bankers’ bonuses, like yacht-building, fine watches, auctioneering and exotic travel could also suffer...”

And, so boys and girls, The Pink Flamingo once again asks a very simple question.

Why are the mega-rich better than the rest of us?

Why do they have more privileges than the small business person who is the back bone of this nation?

Why are they so important that they get more breaks than everyone else?

Why do the mega rich get to keep a greater percentage of their earnings that we the little people?

Why is what they earn more precious than what the rest of us earn?

Why is the far right incapable of comprehending that everyone in this country should be paying the same percentage tax rate? Once upon a time, that was the goal. Now, thought, that is somehow socialist and marxist.

When did the right embrace a strange nightmare version of Randian socialism where everything is taken from those who are not wealthy and given to the wealthy?

Why should income be confiscated from anyone, including the middle class?

From what The Pink Flamingo can comprehend via my dyslexic mind, the subsidies provided via insanely low taxes on the 0.05% of the rich, white, men (and they all are white and male) equal the same amount spent on medicare and social security each year.

In other words – these very few men are the real takers in this country. They are taking the life’s blood from the rest of us, lying about it, and paying for the far right punditry class to spew propaganda to make the brainwashed FOX Tabloid News viewer constantly enraged. They are the same as everyone else. BUT, thanks to their bankrolling people like Rush, Sean, Michael, Glenn, etc. the right believes they are almost deity, sacred, protected, entitled, better than the 99.9% of the rest of us.

Sorry, but they aren’t. To state that they aren’t is not socialist. It is not marxist, it is not even communist. It is what normal Republicans once did before they sold their souls to the highest bidder.

This is NOT about making the ultra wealthy pay MORE than anyone else. It is about making every American pay the very same percentage rate with the very same deductions. This nation can’t continue to go down the prime rose path of the ultra wealthy Randians taking everything from those who labor, honestly, to make a normal living and have a normal life.

The truly bitter irony here is that the “patriot” right has been brainwashed into thinking that this nation is all about allowing a group of individuals to rise up and walk all over everyone else. They think this is freedom, and democracy. Sorry, but it is the exact opposite. These are the same people who caution, cry, and tell us that the left is destroying the very fabric of this nation. They’re doing that so that no one will bother looking at what they are doing to destroy the United States as we once knew it.

This country is not going to be destroyed by the left, but the far right, and we’re all to stupid to even see it being destroyed, right in front of us. I don’t call these people patriots, I call them the end of everything good that we have known about America.

The Pink Flamingo Recommends

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”--Sinclair Lewis

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SJ Reidhead (aka The Pink Flamingo) is a writer based in New Mexico. The author of two published novels, both westerns: Dust Devil and The Second Mrs. Earp and two published works of non-fictions: TRAVESTY: Frank Waters Earp Agenda Exposed and A Church for Helldorado, Endicott Peabody's 1882 Tombstone Diary. One of the leading authorities on the life of Wyatt Earp and Tombstone during the Earp years, she is currently writing a series of murder mysteries set in modern day Tombstone. The author is also working on a book about fashion in the Wild West. When complete, there will be over 2100 unpublished antique photographs dating from 1855-1910.

The author's work has appeared in Wild West, True West, Blogcritics, and The Tombstone Times. Recently the author has had to deal with a father in Stage 4 Alzheimer's Disease. This is leading to a book dealing with the frustrations of dealing with the frustrations of the disease, finance, legal, health-care, and things no one bothers telling families about it.

SJ Reidhead has been involved in Republican politics since she was 'a little kid'. During the Reagan years she was a lobbyist working with various non-profit organizations who were attempting to salvage NASA and the American space program after the disastrous Carter years. Unfortunately, because of the libertarian take-over of the GOP, and the rise of the Tea Parties, as the Republican Party becomes more and more extreme and marginalized, it is impossible to remain loyal to the GOP. The Pink Flamingoremains GOP to make their lives a living hell. As of now, I will never vote for, nor support another Republican, ever.

The Pink Flamingo went on line on October 4, 2005, after the author realized "normal" Republicans were being marginalized as the extreme far right attempts to become the new normal. In November, 2012, The Pink Flamingo, for the first time ever, voted for a Democrat, Barack Obama. Normal will never again apply to the GOP.

THE PINK FLAMINGO STORY

It started out as a joke. During the seven years I worked with the girls of my parish, leading a youth group, one of the things that I stressed were manners. Part of having manners, the way I see it, is to know how to set a proper table, host a party, cater it, and clean up afterward. I was fortunate enough to have a group of very talented girls in my youth group. They learned how to plan for, and execute large church functions, very properly. During one such function I noticed there were several incredibly tacky pink flamingos sitting on the table. Knowing the girls were up to something, I said nothing. A few months later they did the same thing at a function I was hosting at my home. I said nothing. They had a birthday party for me. More pink flamingos appeared - and a joke was born.

Thanks to the girls, all of whom are now grown, I have a collection of pink flamingos. It has become an ongoing joke. When I began working on my political blog, I realized the only possibly title was The Pink Flamingo!